226 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



CHAPTER Vn. 



KEMAINING ARTICULATA. 



The Hjmenoptera being so much the most intelligent 

 order, not merely of insects, but of Invertebrata, and the 

 Arachnida having been now considered, very little space 

 need be occupied with the remaining classes of the Articu- 

 lata. 



Coleoptera, 



Sir John Lubbock, in his first paper on Bees and 

 Wasps, quotes the following case from Kirby and Spence, 

 with the remarks which I append : — 



The first of these anecdotes refers to a beetle (Aieuchus pilu- 

 larius) which, having made for the reception of its eggs a pellet 

 of dung too heavy for it to move, repaired to an adjoining heap, 

 and soon returned with three of his companions. 'AH four now 

 applied their united strength to the pellet, and at length suc- 

 ceeded in pushing it out ; which being done, the three assistant 

 beetles left the spot and returned to their own quarters.' This 

 observation rests on the authority of an anonymous German 

 artist; and though we are assured that he was a 'man of strict 

 veracity,' I am not aware that any similar fact has been re- 

 corded by any other observer. 



Catesby, however, says : — 



I have attentively admired their industry, and their mutual 

 assisting of each other in rolling these globular balls from the 

 place where they made them, to that of their interment, which 

 is usually a distance of some yards, more or less. This they 

 perform back foremost, by raising their hind parts and pushing 

 away the ball with their hind feet. Two or three of them are 

 sometimes engaged in trundling one ball, which from meeting 

 with impediments, on account of the unevenness of the ground, 

 is sometimes deserted by them. It is, however, attempted by 

 others with success, unless it happen to roll into some deep 

 hollow or ditch, where they are accustomed to leave it; but 



